Monday, November 14

Grain-fed and RAW?

An Organic Cash Cow By KIM SEVERSON is mostly about organic milk, but it also has these tidbits:

Many connoisseurs say the best milk comes from cows who eat mostly grass. The flavor is more complex, and varies with the seasons. In addition, a grass diet leads to milk with as much as five times the amount of conjugated linoleic acid, which some studies using animal models show can help fight cancer. And grazing is better for the cows' health than a diet of grain.

And it's not just what the cows eat:

...for purists, unpasteurized, or raw milk, is the only way to go. It can be delicious and more nutritious, but finding raw milk takes a lot of work. In most states it can be sold legally only on the farm or through clubs in which people buy shares of a cow and divide the milk. And raw milk can pose a health hazard, especially for people with weakened immune systems.

2 comments:

It's apparently true that raw milk can contain dangerous pathogens and that drinking it is risky. But since raw milk is legally sold in more than half of the United States, it seems we would hear more about its devastating effects if its dangers were commonly manifested. Wouldn't we? The large dairy industry is quite powerful and possessive. Although I trust science, I don't trust research funded by large corporate interests, or research that has that bias.

Raw milk is still pretty hard to buy, so the number of people who fall ill from the effects is pretty small. On the other hand, I believe that if consumers would be willing to take responsibility for the effects of contaminated milk, they should be allowed free access to it. The trouble is, as soon as someone fell ill, they'd most likely want to blame someone else for their misfortune.